13 Intel Core i7 LGA 1366 CPU Coolers Compared

Noctua NH-C12P

This is the second cooler we received from Noctua, the NH-C12P. It’s a lowish profile down draft cooler design, and so far the only option (that we have in our lab) over stock cooling your new Core i7 in a narrow case. So far there is no LGA1366 version of the NH-C12P listed on Noctua’s site, but they did send us a SecuFirm2 mounting kit for it. Now, we did not see that great of a performance from the NH-C12P when we tested it on our Core2 platform, but since Noctua says it will work with Core i7, and I still have it in the lab I will be testing it. Let’s take a quick look at the specifications.

As you can see the cooler is rather short as compared to the coolers we have looked at so far, even though the top mounted 120mm fan, the NH-C12P, is only 114mm tall. So this makes the NH-C12P very attractive to those with narrow cases.

The design of the NH-C12P allows it to be the only cooler, other than stock, in our testing today that does not block or restricted access to RAM slots or the height of the RAM sticks. More on this issue in a moment.